What Can Israel Teach the U.S. About Airport Security?

Pajamas Media ^ | Jan. 1 | Allison Kaplan Sommer

[AJKauf]

For eight years, travelers in the United States getting ready to head to the airport have had to think hard about their footwear. Knowing that we’ll be forced to remove our shoes to go through the X-ray machines, we make sure that they are an easily removed pair — and that socks have been recently washed to prevent embarrassment. In warm weather, the ordeal can’t be prevented by a clever choice to wear open sandals that expose the feet, as the TSA employees are under strict orders to closely examine even the strappiest shoes.

But Israelis heading for Ben-Gurion Airport need not worry about donning even the most complicated pair of lace-up boots, as passengers are never asked to take off their shoes as part of the security process.

Airport security in Israel is not about what’s on your feet, or in your pockets, or — god forbid — in your underwear. It’s about what’s in your head.

While the Israeli security system is certainly not perfect, it is unlikely that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab could have successfully boarded a plane without being detained, questioned in-depth, and hopefully caught — even if his risk level hadn’t been so clearly documented.

The secret of Israeli airport security doesn’t just lie in super-sophisticated technology. Simply put, in Israel’s airport, there are simply far more opportunities to get caught....

[albie]

Unfortunaltely, we’ll have to reach a level of 24 hour vigilance due to constant terrorist acts, as Israel has, before we do anything smart like profile. Maybe not even then.

[TexasCajun]

It's pretty simple, but totally politically incorrect!

Profile people, not things!

[PGalt]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting.

[gwilhelm56]

Never been called PC ..so I’m not going to start now...

START new AIRLINE... “VIRGIN AIR” .. Muslims only...they wanna blow plane up they only take their OWN. Anyone who WHINES about PROFILING is shot on SIGHT!!

any member of CAIR... will be fitted with their OWN Suicide Vest. but they don’t get the control

[upilot]

What is needed is multiple layers. Right now, we do have them, but the primary layer is all about show, not actually acting as a security layer.

At Ben Gurion, Israel has several layers:

-- There is a drive-through post approaching the airport
-- Sometimes there is a post outside the outer most door
-- While in line for the ticket counter, there is Q&A profiling
-- All luggage, including carry on and checked, is Xrayed
-- At the ticket counter, the airline is responsible for other red-flag items
-- Main security checkpoint with metal detectors etc.
-- Plain clothes and video monitoring
-- One last metal detector as boarding

All of these layers are visible to the public (no secret). There are other layers, that are not visible to the public.

What is needed in any security or safety system is a multi-channel check. The channels cannot be dependent upon one another, but instead must run parallel.

These are things that ALL safety and security professionals know... the only real issue for the TSA is whether to about security, or merely about pretending to be concerned about security - in other words, why do they insist on being "all hat and no cattle"?

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

What Can Israel Teach the U.S. About Airport Security?

Trick question, right?

Answer: Everything

[Wiz]

We don’t need to be taught by any other country about our security measures and practices, and it is very disturbing that such an Israeli writer is trying to show off their capabilities that portrait Americans looking dumber. The Detroit would be bomber penetrated the EU standards of Air Port security, and did NOT penetrate the US Air Port security. If there was anything wrong, it would be the privacy hysteria liberal idiots that are challenging the sensing technology that may see through clothes. Enough said.

[Tzfat]

We don’t need to be taught by any other country about our security measures and practices, and it is very disturbing that such an Israeli writer is trying to show off their capabilities that portrait Americans looking dumber.

Huh? Our procedures are "dumber"! So is what bothers you most is the fact that it is "Israelis" that do better than us?

Political correctness exists all over the western world, including Israel. However, when it comes to the real job of security, Israel does not care a wit for PC.

[Recon Dad]

Been through Ben Gurion a number of times and any comparison between airport security in the US and there is only coincidental.
We have a works program for the barely employable and soon to be a unionized crowd of SCIU slugs.

[A Strict Constructionist]

“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety” Ben Franklin

Amendment 4 of the Constitution-these invasions seem to me to be warrantless searches of the innocent while were being PC and not looking at the people that commit these acts. Profiling is good wasting my time is bad.

[Riodacat]

Answer: Everything

BINGO!!!

[Bobalu]

[Bobalu]

[Cloverfarm]

DH and I survived not fitting the profile in the eyes of El Al on a charter from Indianapolis to Tel Aviv years ago. Chartered by the United Methodist Church of Indiana. So, being younger, we didn’t fit the profile of the passengers they expected.

No harm, no foul, but DH thought I was going to get us left behind ;-)

[zeaal]

The U.S. doesn't have the ying-yangs to do what needs to be done.

[Always A Marine]

The U.S. doesn't have the ying-yangs to do what needs to be done.

You are correct, sadly. I once shared a flight with an IDF counterpart, who scoffed at our airport "security" procedures. The Israeli officer observed that "You look for things; we look for people. We know who to look for, and so do you -- but you lack the courage to confront them. You treat your own people like the enemy, and the enemy like your own people." He was correct on all counts.

[goldstategop]

I think Americans would put up more with casual questioning than with repeated checks of their bodies and shoes. Its not the object that constitutes a danger; its a bad person. And in Israel if you pass the checks, you can even skip the security lines completely. High risk people like Muslims are the people you want to question extensively. Such profiling is not all racist or discriminatory since its behavior-based. And it really works.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus